German police have abandoned plans to give a heroism award to the cop who killed the Berlin Christmas market terrorist – after he was pictured giving a Nazi salute.
Luca Scata was due to be honored after shooting dead ISIS-inspired Anis Amri, who murdered 12 people in the German capital just before Christmas.
Scata, a member of Milan’s police service, killed Amri after he fled from Berlin into Italy via several other European countries.
Predictably, he was hailed as a hero, and plans were put in place for him to receive the Federal Cross of Merit – Germany’s highest civilian honor, according to German newspaper Bild.
Berlin'de Noel pazarına saldırı yapan şahsı öldürünce kahraman ilan edilen İtalyan polis Luca Scatà, Nazi selamı yaparken görüntülendi. pic.twitter.com/iBOkZB6JqU
— ÇapaMag (@CapaMag) February 13, 2017
The newspaper unearth pictures of Scata giving a Nazi-style salute on social media, as seen above.
They also found a post by Scata written in praise of Italy’s fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini.
The post – since deleted – reportedly poured scorn on Italians who had turned away from the former leader.
It said: “any decided to stay true to the flag and to give their lives for it. I belong to this Italy, to those Italians who have not committed treason and who have not surrendered.”
Bild‘s sources said that the German federal government found the posts while vetting Scata, and decided to withdrawn the planned award as a result.
Christian Movio, Scata’s police partner, was also due an award for trying to stop Amri, who shot him while trying to escape.
But investigators reportedly found extremist posts linked to Movio as well, including jovial comments under a photo of Hitler.
